Choosing a headset: our thoughts, experience, and a guide 2.0
Two years ago we published a post about headsets. It seems like it's time to refresh it and bring into line with present day realities. So — what has happened over these years? What interesting, important, trendy things can give us modern hi-tech? Let's find out.
Previously on the Episode 1
In the first article we reviewed connectivity, headphone and microphone types, noise reduction — and, frankly speaking, we have nothing significant to add. The list of connection types is still the same — jacks, USB, wireless; no new methods appeared so far, take it easy.
The same we can say about ears number — human nature changes slowly — like it or not, but the average number of ears on a human body is dramatically less than the number of genders we are given now. Yeah, that list is longer.
Finally, we still strongly believe that a calm office is better than a noisy one… but if it’s not your case — there is a large variety of headsets with noise reduction. Total noise elimination would be even better but not invented so far… good idea by the way! Tesla 2.0, where are you?
That’s what was said two years ago. Now back to the future.
Charging
Let us guess: you use wireless earphones. The author of this text uses wireless earphones. Everyone uses it. This is not a trend — this is already what goes without saying.
What is especially nice — it's getting adopted in office life too... and that's great! Just fancy: no tangle wires, no needlessly busy space on the table, looks stylish — your agent's will love it, and it's important: in our worldview only happy employees create happy customers, and good job conditions are what creates happy staff, so that's definitely a positive thing.
Such headsets come with dedicated charging docks, allowing for convenient charging and storage when not in use. A bonus by the way: this is good for those who need several attempts for plugging the charging cable. No cable, no cry, nothing to repair when the charging port is broken because of sloppy hands.
Our experience: we’ve tested and are still using Leitner LH570 — looks nice, works nice. The shortest description of a good headset ever :)
Portability
Last time we supported wired USB connection but now we’d argue with ourselves what we were two years ago.
Our opinion at that time: USB is good and optimum as it provides almost 100% smooth and trouble-free work. But some vendors turned out to be brave enough to tear wires off in favor of a built-in DECT adapter inside. And you know what? Nothing worsened.
With that, it's good for portability: no cable, no cry, fits easily into a small laptop bag. Sure, if you are an agent and stuck inside the office all the time, it will leave you cold. But if you are to travel a lot, you'll love it. Where have you been all my life?! — said our sales director after trying LH475. C'est la vie, Stanley, c'est la vie…
Warranty
If headsets for you are consumables, stop reading, we are from different universes. And we are not rich enough to buy cheap and how-does-it-still-work devices. We work with it but we should not work for it. Instead, the equipment we buy should work for us. And it should be qualitative enough at a reasonable cost.
Obviously, when you pay one or two C-notes for a headset, you expect it will be in service and in good shape at least for a year, that's a standard warranty term... but what about 5 years? This is Leitner's full-replacement commitment covering even the battery. Do you remember we are using a wireless one? Well, we'll check it out and report in 4 years and a half, almost none of the warranty term remains :)
Training and pair work
People aren't born good agents (but not sure) — they have to work at it, learn, and try. Therefore, someone should teach, train, and guide.
Yet one important feature for an up-to-date headset is training — with it you can connect two devices to one call, and a mentor can test a mentee in situ. An instant check, a quick feedback, a prompt improvement and time economy.
The cable in the photo is for those who like it hot and wired. It goes without saying that if you use wireless headsets with built-in training features, no cable is needed. (If the "training" term is seldom seen in your texts in context of headsets and you'd like to find out more about how it works, we've got a video for you.)
By the way, there is a software way to do the same — with Softphone.Pro you have three beautiful options:
Listen
You can hear both the Agent and client channels, nobody hears you.
Whisper
Prompt something to the Agent to help with a hitch. You can hear both the Agent and client channels and the Agent can also hear you but the client hears the Agent only.
Barge
That works in both channels. Your channel is joined onto the Agent and client channels, all parties can hear each other. Show master class and teach your agents by example.
So if you fight for good conversations, you generally have a choice of two options: to hire and allocate best conversationalists or to grow your own talk masters. As for the second, now you have all the opportunities — both hard and soft (best together).
So now the guide looks profound and comprehensive... almost. To complete it, we give you a promo code and a secret link:
1-MONTH-FOR-FREE — both for softphone alone and softphone + Team combo. And 3 months extra for a review on G2.com.
Leitner LH570 — try it risk-free for 60 days. Pay only if you decide to keep it. Use in the office or on the go. 2-Day Free Shipping, 365-Day Returns. 5-Year Warranty. Our choice.
Enjoy and softphone professionally :)
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